Press Professionalization and Propaganda: The Rise of Journalisti ...

re-establishing journalism’s credibility, especially in the years after World War I. In fact, in 1922 Walter Lippmann observed in Public Opinion that the American press, especially jingoistic during that war, had been faltering mightily in providing reliable information to the public. The press needed to embrace a “system of analysis and record” and “bring to light the hidden facts,” he said.¹⁷ His exhortation was taken to heart. Newsrooms during the interwar years adopted practices and principles (reinforced through journalism trade associations, college journalism courses, and newsroom routines) that emphasized gathering facts contextualized through expert sources. During this same period, the emerging field of public relations found that it could meet professional journalism’s needs by offering prepackaged, fact-laden information and commentary from knowledgeable sources.

The result has been, since the 1920s, an increasing amount of propaganda information in news stories that have all the appearance of objective, factual news. More recently, the symbiotic relationship between the press and public relations people has been explored from an understanding of effects (e.g., how many news releases have inspired news stories, what do journalists and PR practitioners think of each other). However, this effects perspective addresses symptoms and avoids a root element: the quandary of propaganda’s appearing as news is strongly linked to the press’ own unreflective work conventions. These routines have given propaganda an authenticity that allows it to penetrate news columns. As propaganda increasingly insinuates itself into news accounts, it exponentially erodes the believability of news. The core problem is a press professionalism that exhibits a conflicted double-mindedness. Traditional journalism stresses newsroom conventions that emphasize factuality, objectivity, and expertise—all approaches that are designed to protect the news from being shaped by outsiders. However, these same ways of approaching news gathering and construction actually put journalists in the position of relying on those who prepackage information and contacts in the service of vested interests.

There is a dissonance here; the press’ alleged drive for impartiality appears to be achieved by sorting through, and selecting, information